


Exo Back Next Door: Episode 2

by ellieq_e



Series: Exo Back Next Door [2]
Category: EXO (Band), 우리 옆집에 EXO 가 산다 | EXO Next Door
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-26
Updated: 2018-04-20
Packaged: 2019-04-05 07:43:03
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,144
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14039463
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ellieq_e/pseuds/ellieq_e
Summary: After six months apart, Ji Yeon-hee and Chanyeol are finally reunited. But will Ji forgive Chaneyol for keeping her in silence for so long?





	1. Welcome Back

“Hello, Incheon Gal.”

Ji was frozen in shock as she looked at the six smiling young men standing before her. She rubbed her eyes a few times, still unable to fully believe that 2/3 of the members of Exo, her favorite boy band on the planet and the former neighbors that she had thought were gone from her life forever, were standing here before her again, rock star apparel-clad and bulky luggage in hand.

“Wha--?” she barely managed to choke out her question before flying into the arms of the tallest boy among them. Even with his fresh haircut and leather-tipped red jacket, she would recognize him anywhere: her childhood love Chanyeol.

“You idiot, you idiot, you idiot!” she cried, her first instinct to bury her head in the giant concavity of his chest. Furiously, she beat her hands against the black fabric of his t-shirt without looking up to meet his eyes.

“How dare you not call me, text me, or even email me for the past six months?!” she let all her pent-up frustrations out through her soft punches, not caring that it might hurt him or make her look bad in front of the other band members.

“Uh..” Chanyeol took a step back, clearly taken aback by this unexpected onslaught of a greeting. His bandmates looked around at each other nervously, clearly not sure how to respond, either, but within moments he quickly recovered and encircled his arms around the bunny-like girl before him.

Ahh. He inhaled her sweet shampoo, looking down to see that her nose had scrunched up into a cute button and her cheeks had become ruddy from all the effort. She was still the same little red-cheeked reindeer as she had been before. _His_ adorable little red-cheeked reindeer.

“So, you missed me, then?” he whispered in her ear as her fists began to slow their pounding.

“You think just become I’m not punching you with all my strength means that I missed—” Ji responded furiously, trying to break out of his grasp, but he held on too tight. Subconsciously, she stopped resisting, beginning to melt into his embrace. Truthfully, her body had already begun deflating from her initial outburst, and just like old times, she had begun to settle into the warm crevice of his hug, almost running her hands up and down his chiseled chest before remembering that he had just oh-so-very unceremoniously removed himself from her life just months before.

Humph. She crossed her arms against his chest, refusing to proactively engage in his embrace but no longer struggling to get out of it either. His grip on her slightly loosened, and at this, the other band members seemed to take it as a sign that they should join in on the hug, too. Quickly, Ji became surrounded by a gaggle of happy superstars and their insanely toned arms, an upgraded version of the Ji sandwich that always seemed to find her on public transportation.

“Incheon Gal! We missed you!” Baekhyun and Sehun chorused the loudest, as they piled on top of her. From the outside of their standing pig pile, D.O. and newcomer flat mates Suho and Kai greeted her as well, ruffling her hair and patting her on the back.

“Ok, ok,” Chanyeol held up his hands after an adequate amount of time had passed. “Let’s not stifle her any longer.”

Phew, a flustered Ji thought as they peeled themselves off of her. She straightened her clothes and reached to pick up her cleaning supplies again (at this point, her hair was beyond repair), but Chanyeol kept a hold on her arm.

She looked at him inquisitively, but he didn't let go. 

“Where do you think you’re going, huh?” he asked her with a mischievous twinkle in his eye.

“Umm,” she gestured at her cleaning supplies.

“Oh no,” he tsked at her. “The days of you being our employee are over. I get you all to myself, now.”

And with that declaration, he laced his fingers through hers and lead her up the stairs.


	2. Dinner

“So that’s why you couldn’t call me?” Ji asked Chanyeol, looking over at him from where she was lying on her side on his bed. Taking back what she had said earlier about the house looking abandoned and covered with ghost sheets, Chanyeol’s room looked almost exactly the same as how he had left it, just without the plethora of musical instruments he had packed up to take with him. Hmmm, mother must have been specially ordered over to start unpacking for him, she thought to herself as her eyes travelled over the headboard, the mirror, and the larger-than-life printed poster of his face adorning the center of his wall.

Lying next to her, on his side with his head propped up on an arm, Chanyeol nodded back at her, his eyes wide and earnest.

“Yes, I promise you, I would have called you if I could, but our practices lasted from 5 am every morning to 12 pm every night, and I knew that you were studying for your big exams so I didn’t call you. At all other times during the day, our managers had such strict control over our phones.”

Ji nodded, trying to take it all in. It sure was a relief that he hadn’t forgotten about her after all, she thought. And truthfully, she had stopped being mad at him from practically the moment her eyes had made contact with his face. But still, after more than six months of delusional and depressed waiting, and when she had only just convinced herself to let go of him, she still needed time to adjust to the fact that he was going to be back again for another few months or so.

“So…you’re here for all of summer vacation, right?” she asked tentatively, swirling her hand along the designs of his blue bed cover.

“That’s right,” he grinned at her, looking relieved at her forgiveness. “We can start right where we left off.” He flicked a stray strand of her hair playfully.

Exchanging a shy smile with her, he reached over and pulled her treble clef necklace out from under her shirt.

“You kept it safe after all this time,” he breathed, running his fingers over the delicate charm his grandpa had gifted her so many years ago. She nodded, unsure of what to do with his close proximity. Oddly, although he made little contact with her skin, this moment felt more intimate than any hug, caress, or kiss could ever be.

Knowing how important his late grandfather was to him (after all, he had inspired him to follow his dreams to pursue music and become a world-famous star), she couldn’t begin to fathom how meaningful it was that he trusted her with this last token of his otherworldly existence.

“Grandpa was always so perceptive,” he murmured into the air, staring into the pendant’s brilliant silver reflection. Gently placing the necklace back against her chest, he suddenly leaned in and kissed it, then moved up a few inches up to land a gentle kiss on her neck. Ji’s breath stopped, unable to move or say anything—

“Hey guys, are you coming down for pizza?” Baekhyun suddenly burst through the door, startling the moment. Looking back and forth between a composed Chanyeol, who had stayed exactly where he had been leaning on his arm on the bed, and a flustered Ji, who had sprung to the edge of the bed as soon as he had entered the room, he waited for a response.

“Um, did I interrupt something?” he asked in confusion when neither of them responded.

“No, not at all,” Chanyeol was the first to reply as he pushed himself off the bed in a nonchalant manner. Glancing over at the still-silent Ji with bemusement, he responded coolly, “We were just coming down to join you.”

“Ok…great,” Baekhyun backed out of the room, hurrying to leave the awkwardness behind. “See you there.”  
…  
Chanyeol and Ji were greeted by a ruckus of noise when they entered the living room, a product of the already present five band members’ good-natured jostling and teasing.

“Hey, Incheon Gal! Come join the party!” Kai called to her from where he was giving Baekhyun a noogie on the blue couch by the TV. To Ji’s amazement, she saw that the other boys had already uncovered all the furniture in the living room so that it was once again the lively center of their happy Exo den. 

“So, you’re functional without me, after all,” she muttered to Chanyeol, feeling him smirk against her poofy hair as they descended the stairs together. He wrapped his arm around her waist and she couldn’t help but begin to settle back into their old routines. It was just like that time she had gotten stuck with him in his grandpa’s secret study and they had huddled together for warmth, she thought to herself, smiling at the memory. There was just something so right about the way her body fit into his, the way her hands felt running through his hair…

Stepping off the last step, Sehun got up to approach them, holding two cups of orange soda in hand. “Welcome, honored guests,” he joked, holding up his own cup in cheers. If Ji’s nose wasn’t mistaken, she could have sworn that she it smelled like coffee, but she was too overwhelmed at the moment to make much of it. She shrugged it off. So what if the boy liked his own private coffee.

Making her way over to the couches, Suho scooted over when he saw her coming. She bowed gratefully to him as he extended his hand.

“Nice to meet you,” he said to her as she and Chanyeol sat down next to him. “This is the first time we officially meet,” he said to her. Then, gesturing to Chanyeol, he added, “Not that I haven’t heard much about you.” Ji blushed, her cheeks turning their signature cherry red. 

“Oh, hey, you’re turning red. I’ve heard much about that, too,” Kai called from the couch across from her, looking over from he was holding Baekhyun in a headlock. Of course, this only caused her to blush even more deeply.

“Hey, don’t embarrass her anymore,” Baekhyun defended her, squirming free and landing one last shove at Kai’s head before the two tussling boys finally settled down. Opening up the freshly delivered pizza boxes, everyone took turns grabbing a slice and dug in, famished.

After a few moments of nothing-but-munching silence, Kai finally turned to her.

“So, Ji, what have you been up to since we’ve been gone?” he asked through a mouthful of sausage. Yeah. All the other members turned to look at her intently.

“Well…” Ji started, shifting uncomfortably with all the attention on her. “I’ve been studying for my graduate exams,” she confessed. “But that’s not very interesting,” she added quickly, brushing it off in embarrassment. “It’s definitely not as exciting as your dawn to dusk dance practices and sold-out stadium tours,” she looked down at her feet.

“What, are you kidding me?” Kai replied. “When you’re living the life of a pop star, sometimes all you hope for is a taste of a normal life.”

The other boys nodded in agreement, no sign of mocking or sarcasm on their faces. Chanyeol threw an arm around her shoulder, pulling her close.

“Why do you think we moved here in the first place?” he asked her with a bemused, smiling expression on his face. “Other than to be around you, of course.”

In classic Ji fashion, she blushed even more, furiously averting their eyes and willing her cheeks to cool down. They all chuckled good-naturedly at her reaction, but mercifully stopped teasing her to move onto other topics.

“So, Suho, why don’t you tell her about your epic flip-split at our first comeback concert?” Chanyeol prompted their group’s leader, shifting the conversation away from her.

“Oh yeah!” Sehun cheered.

“That was so epic!” the other boys chimed in.

From there, the conversation flowed easily, and Ji felt herself settle more and more comfortably into the familiar atmosphere, listening to the familiar mélange of chortling male voices, and settling deeper and deeper into the crook of her sweet Chanyeol’s arm.

It was only until after dinner had finished, as she was gathering the collection of greasy paper plates and empty pizza boxes (having offered to as the least she could do on their welcoming night home), that she noticed the one boy she hadn’t talked to all night. The last of the band members to get up from the couches, D.O. caught her eye as he handed her his empty plate.

“Oh, thank –” she was about to say to him, but he walked away from her wordlessly, having just barely acknowledged her.


End file.
